.blog Landrush: Domain open to the general public as of 21 November

WordPress.com owner Automattic is making .blog available to the general public as of 21 November, following a somewhat controversial landrush period. Earlier this month, the registry opened domain registrations to non-trademark owners for the seven-day landrush period, but was accused of pre-registering and keeping the best keywords for itself. Automattic responded to the criticism on …

Facebook stops use of WhatsApp metadata for ads in Europe for privacy backlash

Following its pausing of the use of WhatsApp data in the UK, Facebook has stopped using data taken from its messaging service for advertising across Europe. The social network had come under pressure from the pan-European data protection agency group, the Article 29 Working Party in October. The group of privacy watchdogs said it had …

Massive DDoS attack on Dyn causes internet disruption, hacked IOT devices blamed

A major cyberattack affected hundreds of websites, including the New York Times, Reddit, Twitter, Spotify, and eBay. The attack was actually centered on Dyn, a New Hampshire-based company that offers a platform to optimize websites’ online performance. This includes monitoring and controlling applications and infrastructure with data and analytics to reroute traffic and ensure end-users …